


Freshman Year

by JackTheBard



Series: Beacon University [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 23:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6215239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackTheBard/pseuds/JackTheBard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby and her sister attend their parents Alma Mater: Beacon University.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Freshman Year

Beacon University was… different. Ruby Rose knew that when she applied after graduating from high school two years early with her older sister, Yang, and she knew that she wanted to stick by her best friend even through the years of their higher education. Legacy dictated that it was wise to apply to Beacon, since both of their mothers and their father went there. Logic dictated that it was wise to apply to Beacon because it not only had some of the best programs in the country, but their various martial arts clubs were the best in the nation.

Ruby and Yang’s dad, Taiyang Xiao Long, pulled up his massive minivan (a vehicle teetering between the realm of tank and mom-mobile) to the Freshman dorm. “This looks like the place!” he said, peering about, trying to find the name of the building and ascertain their location. “Tower Hall… yep! This is it!” He opened the door and stepped out, prompting Yang and Ruby to join him, with the latter throwing open the massive sliding door to tumble out of the mom-tank.

Yang stretched and yawned, arching her back to make the crop top she already wore hike up a bit further, drawing the attentions of a few of the guys that were passing by. Ruby stretched out her shoulders and used an old trick to pop her back. Yang took a deep breath after planting her hands on her hips and staring up at the ten-story-tall building that they’d spend the next year living in. “Smell that mountain air, Ruby. It wasn’t nearly this clean at home!”

“And all the cheese you cut in the car didn’t help the ride at all,” Ruby chided her older sister. Ruby was only sixteen, with Yang being two years older, and felt a little apprehensive about being the youngest student in the prestigious college. “So do you think some of the rumors about this place are true?” she asked, trying to take her mind off the problems already plaguing her mind.

“What rumors?” Yang asked, seemingly oblivious as their dad started to pop the back hatch and load all of their various boxes onto a hand truck to assist with the move-in process. Ruby took the hand-truck while Yang and their dad each carried two boxes. “The ones about the… extracurricular activities here?” She chose her words very carefully, as not to tip off their dad to know what they were talking about.

“Yang, I’ve told you before, there isn’t a fight club here,” Taiyang explained, chiding his daughter with his words. “Just martial arts clubs. Nothing like out of the movies.”

Yang let out a groan, both from the exertion of carrying the boxes and from the frustration of her dreams being dashed like waves on a rocky coast. Ruby, on the other hand, felt relieved. Why would any college endorse such a thing on their campuses?

They checked in and were assigned to room 413, and received the information that, while the rooms were not coed, the dorm certainly was. This did nothing to alleviate Ruby’s sense of tension, especially seeing as she was equal parts excited and scared to begin this new chapter of her life.

Tai and Ruby waited for the elevator to open up and admit them, while Yang decided to take the stairs, boxes and all. She managed to complete two runs before Tai and Ruby got onto the elevator, packed shoulder to shoulder with two other parent-student groups and their boxes.

“Nervous?” Tai asked, picking up on Ruby’s apprehension.

Ruby started for a moment, then let out a long breath, looking up at her dad with as calm a smile as she could muster. “Yeah. A bit.”

“I’d say more than a bit,” Tai said with a laugh, “Don’t worry, though. I know you’ll do great. And if you need help, or just someone to talk to, your sister is right there and I’m only a phone call away.”

“Thanks, dad,” she said, headbutting him in the cramped space and offering him a smile. She felt a little less worried about it right now, though she still had apprehensions about making friends and getting to know the lay of the land a little bit better. “Anyplace you’d suggest as a hangout? Or a place you’d avoid?”

Tai hummed in thought as the elevator dinged on the fourth floor, allowing Tai and Ruby to squeeze out past everyone else in the elevator and exit onto their floor. “Definitely stay away from the engineering buildings at night. They have the boilers and steam tunnels under there, and the nights get cold. When they turn them on, every rat and raccoon within a five mile radius hangs out down there.”  
Ruby shuddered, thinking about the teeth and claws of the vermin her dad described. Yang came around the corner as they stepped out of the elevator, her hands empty from what was presumably her third trip between the car and the room. “It’s about time you got here! Ruby, the room has its own bathroom! No more late-night jaunts down the hallway to take a leak.”

That made Ruby smile, and she pushed the hand-truck into their room, marveling at the spacious floors, span of desk space, and bunk bed tucked neatly into one side, not unlike the one that Yang and Ruby shared at home. Already, Yang had folded a neat little tent of paper and placed it on the lower bunk’s mattress. Ruby plucked it up and read the quick, jotting scrawl of her handwriting that said “You take the top, sis. You’ve earned it after all these years.” The note ended with a winky face, complete with tongue sticking out of one corner of the face’s mouth.

Behind her, Tai said, “Wow. They’ve gotten nicer since I’ve been here” in a moment of musing, prompting Ruby to turn around and throw her arms around her dad’s waist. Tai hugged Ruby back after a moment of surprise, “You okay there, kiddo?”

“Yeah, dad. I’ll just miss you.”

“Aw, come on,” he said, pulling away and crouching down to look up at her for a change. “You’ll be just fine, I promise. Besides, I’ll sometimes come up and visit on weekends.”

“Thanks, dad,” Ruby said, hugging him again before they resumed unloading the tank they had parked out front. One more trip for Tai and Ruby saw the last of the boxes unloaded, after which Tai bid his daughters farewell, informing them that he’d be in town for a day or so before he drove back home. Once alone in their dorm room, Yang and Ruby set to unpacking while people bustled around outside. As Ruby started hanging up a couple of her sundresses in the closet, she heard a thump outside their door, along with a sound of “Oof!”

Curious, Ruby poked her head outside to see a young man in blue jeans and a white t-shirt lying, rather conspicuously, under a pile of small boxes that presumably carried textbooks. A quick scan of the situation revealed that he probably tripped over his own untied shoelaces. Under the boxes that covered his head, the young man groaned in both frustration and pain.

“Are you okay down there?” Ruby asked, a little concerned, even as people walked right past the man with his head covered by boxes. He tilted one of his hands and gave a thumbs up in return before he sat up and ruffled his thick blonde hair.

“Yeah, just tripping over my own feet,” he commented before he started piling up the boxes and lifting them with ease. He stood in front of the door to the room across from Ruby and Yang’s before he let out a sigh. “Hey, could you give me a hand? I don’t want to drop these and my keys are in my back pocket.”

Ruby stepped out of her room and reached into the guy’s back pocket, careful not to give him the wrong idea by letting her fingers linger longer than necessary, and plucked a keychain out. She used a key that looked much like the one for her own room, and unlocked his door with ease. “There you go,” she said, placing the keychain on top of the mound of boxes he carried, and held the door open for him to pass through.

“Thanks,” he responded, dropping the pile on his desk space with a rather audible “whud”. He turned back to her and offered a smile, offering his hand, “Jaune.”

“Ruby,” she responded, shaking his hand in return. “You’re new here too?”

“Yeah. I’m guessing you’re helping your older sibling move in?” he said.

“Yeah, she’s helping me move in too, though, so it works well.”

“You’re a student?” Jaune asked incredulously. “Aren’t you a little young to be a student?”

“Well…” Ruby said, self-conscious about the notion. She rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment and said, “I’m only sixteen, but I graduated high school early. My sister and I are both freshmen here.”

“That would do it, I suppose,” Jaune conceded as he started to open up the boxes he’d just carried in. Bit by bit, he emptied them of their contents: Various medical-related texts.

“I’m guessing you’re pre-med?” Ruby asked, examining the pile of rather dense and heavy-looking books.

“Yeah. Following in my family’s footsteps: studying medicine at Beacon Uni.”

“That’s great! I’m following in my family’s footsteps too!”

Jaune turned to her with an armful of empty cardboard boxes and smiled, “Guess we already have something in common, huh? I think we’re going to be good neighbors.”

Ruby smiled as well, excited that she had already made a friend. With someone right across the hall from her, no less! “Yeah! Oh, but you should be careful. My sister can be a little… wild.”

“Yeah, I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum. My roommate is a little bit… quiet.” Jaune turned his head down the hall to see another student coming down the hallway with a similarly massive armful of books. “Oh, speaking of the devil: Ren!” He called out to the other student, a man of Asian descent who wore a green long-sleeved shirt and had long black hair tied back in a ponytail with an obvious streak of pink running through it.

Ren, the young man in question, poked his head around the massive stack of books and said, “One moment,” as he squeezed past Ruby and Jaune to plop his pile of texts on the desk as well. He dusted his hands off and let out a sharp breath before turning back to the pair standing just outside the door. “Neighbors?”

“Yeah. Ruby, this is Lie Ren. Ren, this is Ruby…” he hoped for her to fill in the blank because he never got her last name.

“Ruby Rose,” she said, shaking Ren’s hand. “I’m rooming with my sister Yang. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Ren said before he turned back to the room and returned to organizing his books.

“He doesn’t speak much,” Jaune said quietly before looked down at the armful of cardboard. “I’ll talk to you later, Ms. Ruby Rose. Still have to move in today.”

“It was nice meeting you!” Ruby called out down the hallway as Jaune went to dump his recycling down one of the various chutes that the university had set up for trash and recycling in the building.

“He’s got a nice butt,” Yang said from behind Ruby, prompting the hairs on the back of Ruby’s neck to stand on end from surprise.

“Yang!”

“What? He does.”

“He’s our neighbor.”

“Yeah. You have a point. Don’t shit where you eat.”

“Yang, that’s not the point,” Ruby said, turning around and puffing out her cheeks in slight frustration.

“What is the point, then?”

“He’s a nice guy, and I have a hard enough time making friends as it is.”

“Just take a couple of hints from me, sis,” Yang said, pulling Ruby back into their room and slugging her in the shoulder as she walked away to do more unpacking. “I turn on my charm, and I have boys falling all over me.”

“Yang, that’s because they were staring at your rack to begin with.”

“Everything helps, sis. If you got it, flaunt it.”

“I don’t got anything TO flaunt!”

“You’re cute.”

“I’m also underage.”

“Oh yeah…” Yang muttered, turning back to reorganize her various tees and shorts in the drawers of her dresser, “That’s a thing.”

Ruby rolled her eyes and returned to unpacking, even going so far as to lay out her bedding and set up her laptop on one of the desks. Just as she started trying to connect to the school’s internet, however, there was a resounding thud from the floor above them. Both Ruby and Yang looked up in confusion, their brows furrowed as Yang asked, quite obviously, “The fuck was that?”

After a moment, another thud, which prompted Ruby and Yang to stare at each other before closing the door behind them and running up to the fifth floor to investigate. Sure enough, a young lady stood outside room 513 with her hands in her hair as she stared into the room in shock. Her hair was the color of slightly under-ripe cherries, her eyes the shining green of emeralds, and she stood almost as tall as Yang in her state of distress.

“You okay up here?” Yang asked the young lady, who simply stared into the room in shock.

“My roommate is insane,” she muttered, which prompted Ruby and Yang to stare into the room as well.

Nothing could have prepared them for the sight of a young lady, even shorter than Ruby was, picking up the bed frames –not the mattresses, the frames– and moving them around the room in various configurations. That explained the thudding.

The young woman in question hefted one of the massive bed frames with a flex of the knees and an audible “hup!” that hoisted it clear off the ground before tossing it, rather casually, over to one side of the room while she adjusted the other bed frame in the middle. Her bordering on orange hair, some strands plastered to her forehead with sweat, contrasted with seafoam green eyes, and the pale pink shirt she wore was a size too large for her.

“Hey!” Yang shouted, storming into the room just as the pint-sized powerhouse was getting ready to fling one of the other bed frames, “What the fuck are you doing?! You’re going to break the damn floor.”

The young lady, halfway through lifting up the second bed frame, yelped in surprise and dropped it again, causing another, rather loud thud. She turned around and ran a hand through her hair in embarrassment, smiling at Yang.

“Sorry. It’s kind of difficult to do Bed Voltron like this,” she explained.

Ruby inched out of the room to stand with the munchkin’s roommate. “Do you guys know each other?”

“No,” the roommate said quietly, “We were a random assignment. I hope this is the extent of her weirdness.”

Inside the room, Yang towered over the munchkin and said, “Bed Voltron? Are you out of your mind?!”

“That’s what Ren says,” she admitted with a shrug, “But I know we can bunk these beds. I’m just trying to figure out how.”

Yang sighed and said, “Well, you don’t have to fling the beds around the room in order to get the job done. Did it ever occur to you to ask for help?”

“No, not really,” the other girl admitted, moving to the first bed that she had so casually tossed across the room. “Think you could help me set this one right?”

“I suppose that I will, as long as I’m here,” Yang conceded, and began shifting the bed so it sat upright once more. “What’s your name?”

“Nora. Yours?”

“Yang.”

Outside the door, the roommate let out an audible sigh of relief, then turned to Ruby with a smile. “I’m glad that’s over with. I’m also glad you guys came when you did. I was worried she would break something.”

“So were we,” Ruby admitted, “I’m Ruby Rose. That’s my sister, Yang.”

“Pyrrha Nikos,” the other girl said, extending her hand to Ruby. Ruby took Pyrrha’s hand and received a firm handshake, but not one that crushed bone.

A moment later, the realization hit her, “Wait. THE Pyrrha Nikos? Olympic Gold Medalist?”

Pyrrha nodded and shrugged, “Yeah, that’d be me.” There was a sense of embarrassment in the gesture, especially considering that they had been off to such an informal start.

Ruby, too excited to care, began bouncing up and down, “Oh my god! It’s such an honor to meet you! Your pin against Julia Norvos in the 2016 Summer Olympics was so great! It was a real pleasure to watch.”

Pyrrha accepted the praise as gracefully as she could, though she hoped that Ruby’s excitement wouldn’t garner more unnecessary attention. After a moment, even the usually-socially awkward Ruby picked up on this thought.

She paused in her bouncing and grounded herself once again, letting out a breath and saying, “Sorry. I just get really excited about martial arts sometimes.”

Pyrrha’s smile was genuine in nature, now, and she asked, “I know that a lot of the students here are practitioners, but what do you do?”

Ruby shrugged and said, “I’m really small, so my dad thought it would be a good idea for me to take up Aikido. Yang followed in Dad’s footsteps, though, and picked up boxing. It’s not nearly as cool as your Pankration, though!”

Pyrrha let out a laugh, responding to the last statement with an earnest sound, one that only grew as Yang and Nora dropped one of the beds again, prompting a very loud “FUCK” from Yang.

Returning to their conversation after her mirthful hiatus, Pyrrha continued, “Pankration just means you have to be ruthless in a fight, something that I don’t really mind. I’m falling more and more in love with the Greco-Roman styles, though. They’re a lot less bloody.”

Ruby cringed at that thought, “Really? You want to stay away from some fighting styles because they’re too brutal? Then why did you learn them in the first place?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Pyrrha said, “Besides, it served as a good foundation in practicality. If something is practical, you can apply it elsewhere.”

“Like in kicking people’s butts?” Ruby asked, a little incredulous.

“Among other things, yes,” Pyrrha conceded, looking back to Nora and Yang’s work as they dropped the beds into place, finally, forming the bunks that they desired. “I guess I should get back to work with unpacking. It was nice meeting you. If we’re too loud, be sure to let me know.”

Ruby nodded just as Yang came out and wiped some sweat off her brow. They made their way back downstairs, only to have Yang comment, “Wow. That Nora girl is really strong. I’m pretty sure she could kick my ass.”

“I hope that the occasion never arises,” Ruby said, honestly. They finished their unpacking in a matter of time, and soon stared out at their room, tidy and neat save for the stack of collapsed cardboard boxes on one side of it. Ruby let out a sigh because, if their room back home was any indicator, that neatness would not last.

“I’m hungry,” Yang said, looking over at her sister. “Should we call Dad and ask him to meet us for dinner?”

“Mooch off him one more time before we have to fend for ourselves?” Ruby asked, already knowing the answer. “Of course.”

Yang called up their dad on her cell phone, and Ruby started to head down the hall, turning the corner to bump into a stately-looking girl with long silver hair and cool blue eyes. Boxes went flying, cascading all across the floor as the other girl’s hand truck was upset.

“Watch where you’re going!” the other girl said in an extreme state of frustration, folding her arms as Ruby tumbled back and fell on her rump, groaning and looking up at the other person she met in collision. The stately woman still stared down at Ruby, then gestured to her boxes, “Aren’t you going to pick those up?”

“Oh my gosh!” Ruby said, getting up and scrambling for the boxes, stacking them one by one on the hand truck, “I am so sorry!”

“Are you an idiot?!” The other girl asked, batting Ruby’s hands away as she got ready to put another box on the cart. “That one is heavy. It’ll crush the box underneath.”

Suddenly, Ruby felt a little more ashamed. She backed away from the other girl as she stacked the boxes herself. “I swear, if all the people at this school are half as stupid as you are, it’s a wonder it manages to remain as famous as it is.”

“Ruby,” Yang’s voice came down the hallway, “Is there someone chewing you out that isn’t me? Certainly sounds like it.”

Ruby let out an internal sigh of relief as Yang came along and stared at the other girl, folding her arms. “Were you the one calling my sister stupid?”

“She nearly destroyed my things!”

“She bumped into you. She knocked some boxes over. You overreacted,” Yang explained, and leaned in dangerously close to the other girl. “And if you talk to my sister that way again, I’ll punch you in the mouth so hard that you’ll have to brush your teeth by shoving your toothbrush up your ass.”

The other girl paled even more visibly, and gulped. Yang wasn’t able to spin a great threat against someone, but she had the muscle and attitude to back it up. What resulted wasn’t necessarily as much a series of threats as it was a bunch of promises whenever she got angry.

“Stay in your lane, Ice Queen,” Yang said as she pushed past the other girl, Ruby following in her wake. As she walked by, Yang made no qualms about kicking aside one of the Ice Queen’s boxes before she and Ruby went down the stairs.

Once she was sure they were out of earshot, Ruby let out an audible sigh of relief, shivering out the tension that had built up over the course of the conversation. “Thanks for saving me back there, Yang.”

“Eh, I’ve got plenty of experience dealing with those princess types. Remember that period of time where all of those girls thought I was sleeping with their boyfriends?”

“Yeah?”

“Girls like that were the ones spreading all the rumors. I mean, their boyfriends would want to, but I have standards.”

“Yang, you scare me sometimes.”

“I could say the same about you, smarty pants,” Yang responded, wrapping her arm around her little sister’s neck and playfully giving her a noogie. Ruby let out a fake choked sound and flailed as her sister’s knuckles playfully ground into her head.

As they descended the stairs, they heard the rumbling engine of their dad’s minitank coming down the road, only to hear it screech to a halt just outside the dorm as they stepped out. Tai stepped out and waved at his daughters, prompting a mad dash for the passenger’s seat.

“Shotgun!” Yang called, much to Ruby’s chagrin.

Tai treated his daughters to a meal of barbecue at a local place, not too far from campus, with Yang chowing down on enough slow-cooked meat to feed three large men as Ruby regaled her dad with stories of their neighbors and the friends they’d already made.

After dinner, Tai dropped his daughters off at Tower Hall, and drove off, waving goodbye tearfully. Ruby could already tell that it was going to be a good year.


End file.
